DM's Duty

[Mossman]

Dave - thank you for sharing. It is nice to see the guideline for your DMs and I can personally confirm this is what was practiced on our recent Coz trip. We dove all week with Julio (one night dive with Pepe) and during this week, the currents were crazy. Our safety was the utmost importance followed by the diver experience. On our first dive, my dive buddy ran into issues 10 minutes into the dive and was beginning to panic and wanted to ascend. I started pulling her down so she wouldn't flight to surface and Julio immediately picked up on the issues, assisted to the sand, and began to calm her down. We were soon back on our way to continue the dive and completed the rest of the week without incident.

Yikes, good that everything turned out OK. Pulling down a diver who's already panicking isn't always the best choice since it can produce more panic. Establishing communication is paramount, especially if it can calm the diver, otherwise signal to remind him or her to do a slow ascent and follow along for safety.

 

[Darol]

Had a young man in his early 20's making his first salt water dive with us this trip.
His soon to be father in law was his partner, so I shot some pics for them and e-mailed
them to him. Tried to make it all about him, why wouldn't you?
Brandon Martine from the Dever area, some great people...
No currents, no drama, no issues, all week, but hey, we were diving with the best, Scuba-Du

 

[PowerDude]

Yikes, good that everything turned out OK. Pulling down a diver who's already panicking isn't always the best choice since it can produce more panic. Establishing communication is paramount, especially if it can calm the diver, otherwise signal to remind him or her to do a slow ascent and follow along for safety.

Maybe panic was too harsh wording on my part. She signalled she was unconfortable wanting to go up. I reached up for her hand to comfort and pulled her down to where I was so she would not bolt. The DM was right there to get the situation back to a relaxed state. Your point is well taken as this was my first experience of this sort.

 

[Mossman]

Maybe panic was too harsh wording on my part. She signalled she was unconfortable wanting to go up. I reached up for her hand to comfort and pulled her down to where I was so she would not bolt. The DM was right there to get the situation back to a relaxed state. Your point is well taken as this was my first experience of this sort.

In that case, it sounds like you did the right thing. One the one hand, there's the mantra that a diver can call a dive at any time, but on the other hand a new diver sometimes gets overwhelmed and wants to call a dive when he or she really just needs a hand-holding and reassurance.

The reason why Cozumel is so terrible for brand new divers is that often this process occurs while in a strong current and it doesn't always end so perfectly. While so many here are questioning how many divers actually die in Cozumel, really the better question is, how many divers are turned off from diving altogether after suffering a bad experience in Cozumel.

 

[bhouk]

Thank you

I have attached what I see are the duties of a DM in CozumelView attachment 120681

I am sure that some of you will want to tear it apart mainly because we keep our groups together but no one has ever died within the sight of the DM.


Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

Dive plans, SOG's, SOP's, EAP's should be included in all diving profiles. I applaud you for your proactive discipline regarding safety. It appears some DO's and divers don't subscribe to the safe diving principles you expect from your DM's.
I will distance myself from them and encourage people to use safe and responsible DO's like Aldora on their trips to Coz.

Thanks